Debate gets heated in Madison on aborted fetal tissue

Bill would allow research on tissue only acquired prior to this year

There was tense questioning at a public hearing in Madison Thursday on a measure that would outlaw research in the state done with aborted fetal tissue.

The proposal is pushed by a coalition of pro-life groups called Heal Without Harm.

Democratic state Senator Lena Taylor said the groups are less focused on research and more focused on something else.

“I think, finally, I’m getting where you are,” Taylor said. “This is about criminalizing abortion.”

The bill, which has come up before in the Legislature in a different form, would still allow medical research on aborted fetal tissue that was acquired prior to this year.

Heal Without Harm defended the proposal, in part because, it says, the small gains from the research is outsized by the massive ethical breach in doing the research in the first place.

Rep. Sen. Duey Stroebel agreed.

“Why are some of these people so hell bent on continuing this when we’ve seen advances really mean this is irrelevant?” Stroebel said at the hearing.

The latest proposal on fetal tissue no longer includes jail time for researchers who use aborted fetal tissue but calls for hefty fines for their institutions instead.